How To: Use Redirect to Reclaim Lost Feed Subscribers After Switching to WordPress

Did you lose a bunch of Feedburner subscribers after switching from say, Blogger to WordPress? OMG – me too! We should go out for coffee sometime.

This is usually because the feed’s URL on each platform is different. So you have all these subscribers (either through their RSS readers or their blog rolls) pointing at the old URL, but your blog is now producing its feed on a new URL.

For example, on Blogger, the URL for my feed was:

http://www.nannygoatsinpanties.com/feeds/posts/default

And now on WordPress, the URL for the feed is:

http://www.nannygoatsinpanties.com/feed

You can get them back through the use of a Redirect. Here’s how:

How To Reclaim Lost RSS Feed Subscribers (The Short Version)

Create a 301 redirect that goes from your old RSS feed URL to your new feed URL. You can use a redirect plug-in (everyone seems to swear by the one from Urban Giraffe ) or you can modify your .htaccess file. In either case, setup your redirect to go from the old Blogger feed:

http://www.yourdomain.com/feeds/posts/default

to the new WordPress feed:

http://www.yourdomain.com/feed

where “yourdomain” is, obviously, your domain name.

How To Reclaim Lost RSS Feed Subscribers (The Detailed Version)

Create a redirect that goes from your old RSS feed URL to your new feed URL. There are three different methods that I’ve tried.

The Plug-in Method

NOTE: This is the recommended method even though I haven’t gotten it to work yet, but that’s because there seems to be a compatability issue at the moment between the Development version of WordPress and the Redirect plug-in. If you’re using WP 3.0 dev version don’t use this plug-in, it will create redirection havoc. It does work, however with previous versions of WP.

Not sure which version of WP you’re using? Scroll down to the bottom of your WP editor and you will see something at very bottom of your screen. Mine looks like this: You are using a development version (3.0-RC2-15136). Cool! Please stay updated.

When you use the plug-in to add a redirect, you’ll get to a screen that looks like this:

For Source URL, enter:

http://www.yourdomain.com/feeds/posts/default

be sure to change “yourdomain” to your own domain name. Mine is nannygoatsinpanties.

For Target URL, enter:

http://www.yourdomain.com/feed

Click the Add Redirection button and you’re done.

Be sure and test the redirection by entering your old URL into your browser to see if your new feed appears. It may take at least a day before your Feedburner count goes back up.

Adding a Redirect via Bluehost

Bluehost has a nice way to create redirects without having to manually go into the .htaccess file (which can be dangerous). If you ever need to redirect anything, you can do so by going to the cPanel and selecting the Redirects icon under the Domains section. Here’s how you can set up a redirect to avoid losing Feedburner subscribers.

On the Redirects page, select Permanent (301) for the type.

There is a pull-down for you to select the URL domain to redirect FROM. Select your custom domain. In the text box after it, enter the old RSS feed that Blogger produces: feeds/posts/default

In the section labeled “redirects –>” enter your new WordPress feed, which is http://www.yourcustomdomain.com/feed

Click the Add button. That’s it.

The Slightly More Dangerous Method

This involves modifying the .htaccess file directly (instead of letting the redirect plug-in, or Bluehost Redirect program do it for you) and isn’t for the faint of heart. I will show you how I did it using the cPanel of my ISP host, BlueHost.

Adding a Redirect via .htaccess file.

Login to your Bluehost cPanel and click on the File Manager icon in the Files section (pictured below).

This will open a new tab in your browser called File Manager and will display a list of files in your public_html directory. Select the file named .htaccess and click on the Edit link at the top.

If a Text Editor dialog box pops up with a button that says “Disable Encoding Check” go ahead and click on it.

By now, you should behold your .htaccess file.

BE VERY CAREFUL AT THIS POINT. If you mess this up, you could render your website useless and then you’ll have crawl over to the Bluehost Customer Service people with your tail between your legs and beg for mercy as they ridicule you and pelt you with wet noodles.

OK, not really, but do try to be careful while you’re in here.

Add a Redirect command to the end of your file. It will look something like this:

Redirect 301 /feeds/posts/default http://www.yourdomain.com/feed

where “yourdomain” should be your domain name. For example, my redirect looks like this:

Awwww, how sweet are you!? And don’t get me started on Disqus problems. I lost some comments too but after messing around all kinds of different ways that involved changing post URL names and God knows what else, I got most of them back.

One miracle I was able to pull off recently was getting my old Haloscan comments into Disqus. Unbelieveable!

My issue when I switched was that some folks got redirected and had the new feed update in their readers, but most of them did not. I had my feed burned through feedburner before I switched. I kept fiddling and I got about half of the subscribers back, but most of the GFConnect followers are still not getting updated. The whole thing made my head want to explode so I gave up, but I’ll give this a shot.

You are so good at instructions and direction! You would make an awesome technical writer, college professor, or something equally brilliant. Wow! No kidding! I think you are important enough they will let you bring the goats to work if you want.

What I did was when I was still on Blogger, I burned my feed using feedburner. Once I moved over to wordpress, I just edited the details of that feed to use my WP feed instead of the blogger one. In blogger you've even got the option of putting in your feedburner feed address so it diverts your original subscribers there.

Hi Susie Q! Yes, I did the same thing you describe and it does indeed divert readers to your new blog and tell Feedburner which feed to pay attention to, but….what it does NOT do is keep your Feedburner Count. And that is what this little article helps with.

I don't understand what you mean when you say it diverts readers to your new blog but you lose readers…? I had burned my feed with feedburner on blogger before I moved to WordPress. I had thought that because the feedburner feed didn't change I didn't need to change anything but you're saying that's not so.

I thought the same thing you did, but when I did the switch to WordPress, my blog no longer updated in people's Google Reader or in people's blog rolls. The email subscribers were fine, however. And the official feedburner count reflected this change in that the count was merely the number of email subscribers, but no longer included the other two sources (Google Reader and blog rolls). Does that make sense? Do you know what your feedburner counts were before and after the switch?

I've built my own websites from scratch since 1997. Of course, now I have someone handling my blogging software because I don't speak php (and for some reason, the language eludes me), but stuff like .htaccess files I can usually handle. Once I had to do a 301 redirect for over 300 webpages! And now I'm taking those pages, plus about 200 more and switching them to WordPress. Gah. At least I was able to hire someone to set up the WordPress site.

I am only slightly confused, but that's because I don't yet need this info. But I will save this or return when I do need it. Meantime, how is it you get ads with a WP account? I thought they didn't allow ads?

P.S. I have landed in FL (hiatus finito), so come visit me! And how's the novel coming?

This is some great information. Thanks for putting it together. Right now I'm on Blogger, and it's OK. Maybe at some point I'll make the switch. I probably need to get through the first year's blogging first, though. I'll be bookmarking this in my computer stuff folder.

Uh, what was that middle part again?Actually thank you for this great post. Once I get to the point where I can afford to have my own host, I would love to switch to WordPress. I am so sick of Blogger…I want control over my OWN site! Anyway, I will bookmark this, so when I do make the move, I'll be able to keep my one or two readers